Update on Joint Pain and .....

I don't really have much to report except that I did go to the doctors yesterday and he sent me for x-rays of my hands/fingers, knees and ankles. He also send me for a number of labs. They are: Lyme disease, CBC w/diff, C-reactive Protien, Rheumatoid Factor and Sed Rate. I had all this done on Friday after I left the doctors office. I am hoping that he gets everything back early enough on Monday so I don't have to wait to long to find out what is going on.

Unfortunately, I went and read about the blood test and some of the things they can tell from them is actually scary. What my doctor is really looking for is different causes of inflammation but there are a number of reasons that can cause this.

I did get somewhat some good news. My cholesteral results also came back and we went over those. Though the numbers are still high, the triglycerides are no where as high as they were before. I still have to watch what I eat but from what my doctor told me he can't put me on any meds for my cholesteral because of my other meds

And now for something that has me totally weirded out:

My daughter and I figured out today that I must be sleepwalking. I have no idea if this is something I have done before or if this was the only time.

I'm pretty sure I was asleep and dreaming when I vividly remember seeing my daughters flip-flops in the garbage. I didn't remember this until later in the day when she was looking for them. I told her to look there but she couldn't imagine why she would throw them out. So, when she was cleaning out my car, I went and took them out of the garbage and clean them off.

There other thing that happened is in the upstairs bathroom, there was a photo album on the sink. I asked Becky if she got up and used the upstairs bathroom during the night and she didn't. This must mean, since I was sleeping on the couch, I went upstairs, probably went to the bathroom and for whatever reason, brought the photo album into the bathroom. I will swear on a stack of bibles, I touched neither of those objects.

That's it for now.....

JOINT PAIN

I went to see my PCP today about the joint pain that I'm still having. There are a number of joints that are still bothering me and making me very uncomfortable.

Any way, he is doing a bunch of test and x-rays before he determines what is going on.

I had x-rays done of my wrist and fingers, knees and ankles.

I also had blood test done. There are for Lyme disease, c-ractive protein (whatever that is, but I will find out), rhumatoid factory and sed rate. So there you go Maggie, everything you ask for.

When he gets the results back, he will call me and let me know what is going on. In the meantime it is tylenol and warm baths.

On a bright note, I have been off my antipsychotics for just over a week and emotionally I am doing good.

The other good news is, that even though my cholesterol is still high, my triglycerides are no where near what they were on my first test.

While I wait I am still totally frustrated. I just need all this pain to go away.

It really sucks and there isn't much I can do about it until we know what it is.

Update

I started taking Cogentin today to counter the side effects of the Abilify.  It takes 24  - 48 hours for this med to start taking effect.  I hope this works, I'll give it about 3 days to see if it will start working, if not it's off to see my PCP to see if anything else is going on.  I am trying my best not thinking about what else it might be because just my luck it is something else but one step at a time and I need to stay positive.  So, I will wait and pray and hope this works.

 

The great (yeah right, not if your me) about the Cogentin is one of it's side effects not listed anywhere I looked but on the sheet from the drug store is sleeplessness.  So can you all guess which side effect I got from this med.  Just when I thought the struggle with the Trazadone was over.  It made me drowsy about an hour after I took it but then that worse off.  I have slept about 1 1/2 hours since I got up at 3 this morning (short of my 10 min nap when the phone rang and woke me up).  So, here we go again.  I was going to give Robert the Trazadon but luckily he forgot to take it with him.  We are going to have to work something out that it's not here but he remembers to bring me some when I need it.  I'm only going to be able to keep a couple.  The good news is, I only have 11 of them left.  But if I have to take this med for awhile I might need to get more Trazadon.

Some of this problem sleeping could also be because my body is not used to not being in a state of 'tired' all the time.  But I can't funtion long on less then 5 hours of sleep a night.

 

This is such a fun thing (NOT).  One can only hope that when all is said and done I can manage without an antipsychotic because I'm not sure I'm ready to try a new med.

 

updates to follow as they become available..... 

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The good and bad are easy, there isn't anything to report.
The ugly has reared it's head this week.  I switched from Seroquel to Abilify and that all appeared to go well.  My thought process was in take (no comments from the peanut gallery - you know who you are!!).  Well, just because the thought process works doesn't mean the med is good for you. 
I personally like to get the uncommon/infrequent side effects of medication and this time is no different.  I started to get joint pain somewhere along the week.  It's hard to tell exactly when because lucky me has joints that already hurt.  By Wednesday just about all my joints hurt.  After making 2 calls to my Pdoc and my T calling and having him paged on Thursday he finally called me back.  It seems that no one told him I was having joint pain.  I was also having photosensitivity.  I took Thursday and Friday off from work but I didn't really get to enjoy them.  It's hard to stay comfortable and not in pain.  I also had to go for blood test on Friday morning to have the cholesteral test redone and some additional test my PCP wanted.
On Saturday my daughter did some of my housework since I really couldn't do it.  I've been sitting around doing as little as possible.  At times I get up and walk around some, it actually feels good but it last only for a little while.
So this weekend has pretty much sucked the big one.
I think I am going to take tomorrow off.  I can't imagine walking from the parking garage to the office and all around work tomorrow.  I'm going to call my pdoc and see if there is anything he can do to give me some relief so I can go to work on Tuesday.  I can't afford to take time off.  Too much work to do.  Of course if my doc tells me to, that is different.  I brought work home and couldn't even do it.  Hard to work when you can't sit still for long.
I have sleeping pills to help me get more then 3 hours of sleep at night but I can't allow myself to take them.  I'm afraid that if I open the bottle, I will want to take 3 or 4, which is 1 or 2 more then I am suppose to take.  I've called my T twice and I've just left messages.  I'm not up to talking with her right now but at least I've made her aware of what I'm struggling with.
 
All I can hope for right now is some pain relief so I can get back to work before I get reamed out by my boss a second time in less then a weeks time.
 
Stay tuned for the next installment of - How the Meds Turn

It's been a really long time

It's been so long, it's hard to know where to start.  I'll probably just jump around as I think of things so none of this will be in any order.
 
Work has been a real Bitch this past week or so because of the projects that I'm working on.  One of the projects has gone into the production this past weekend, the other was suppose to go into production in August but won't be going in until September.  My boss, was not at all happy with the fact that I told him it would take a miracle to make the August implementation date.  The way I see it, it is better to remove the changes/project now from the version, then to tell them we will make it and end up removing it at a later date.
I have also been telling my boss for the past 3 or 4 weeks that I wasn't going to be able to make the date.
He told me that removing this project from the August version was going to reflect on me and also him.  I don't understand where it makes me look bad, he was manager of both the projects and knew what my workload was.  I don't know how he expected me to split my time when one of the projects was due earlier then the other one.
The good news is, I do have Thursday and Friday off.  They did not come without some snyde remarks from my boss.
 
My friend with the tumor on her kidney is doing better in the respect that the tumor is shrinking like it is suppose to.  Of course she is losing weight and is very tired from the chemo.
 
My other friend, whos' partner has cancer, receives her second chemo treatment on Friday.  They know she will spend all of next week very sick.  All we can do is pray that the chemo with kill the rest of the cancer.  The odds when you look at them all, don't look so good.
 
My best friend currently has temporary custody of her nephew.  We don't how know long temporary means at this point.  It has added some stress to her life but with the situation going on (which I can reveal), taking her nephew was the right thing to do.
 
Most of you know that I changed my antipsychotic from seroquel to abilify.  I believe that I am having some side effects from the abilify and I'm waiting for my shrink to call me back so we can talk about a plan of action.
 
The whole property thing with my sister is still sitting in probate court.  My lawyers office has managed to get probate court to agree to call them when the paper work has been complete so we don't have to wait an wonder if the processing has been completed.
 
I thnk that about covers everything.  If I think of something that I mised, I will update this.